HOMAGE TO CATALONIA

The PGA Catalunya resort has two of Spain’s top golf courses

You don’t need to have fabulous views for golf, but it can help take your mind off how you’re playing. A round of golf is often described as “a good walk spoiled”, but with rolling fairways, mature forests surrounding the course, frequent lakes and then the Pyrenees on the horizon, even hooking your ball into an ornamental lake causes only a moment’s displeasure. Your mindful game may be spoiled though if you inadvertently cause the ball to skip along the top of the water, and then get a cheer from a neighbouring green (as happened to me). Yet it would be a shame to let one bad shot ruin perfect moments such as this.

Set in mature forests about 20 minutes’ drive from Girona, perhaps the most successful aspect of the PGA Catalunya development is that it disguises how close it is to everything else. Well connected by road and rail to Girona to the north and Barcelona to the south, both of which have international airports, the 300-hectare site was first conceived as a location for a future F1 track.

When that didn’t work out (the track was subsequently built in Montmelo near Barcelona), the plan was for a golf course to be developed to host the Ryder Cup in 1997. Two courses were planned and eventually built – the Stadium championship course and the Tour course. Delays meant that in the end the Ryder Cup went to Valderamma in 1997, but the courses and the surroundings are outstanding. They benefit from having been planned together, but also from landscape design by two outstanding course architects – Angel Gallardo and Neil Coles.

Like most modern golf course developments, the plan was to sell real-estate around the property. There was a four-star Melia hotel on site, and the prospect of many apartments, townhouses and villas. But more than a decade later in 2007-8, Spain had more than half a million residential units around golf courses planned or for sale – and little prospect of many of them being sold. At PGA Catalunya, the decision was made to do things a little differently, by insisting on all development being modernist in design; this alludes to the area’s associations with modern art, and with modernity generally.

The so-called “Dali Triangle” of the surrealist artist’s three star attractions are at nearby Figueres, Portlligat and Pubo, and Catalonia was also the home of Picasso for many years. The result is that unlike the majority of recreational and residential developments, the estates look distinct, although all have clean white lines and lots of glass. The buildings fit with one another so when walking or jogging around the resort, or taking bikes out for the day, or playing either of the courses, the clusters of buildings appear to be all of a set, even though they were designed separately.

Three architectural agencies were brought together to create a brand playbook for developers to follow, with the detailing even going down to the type of gardens to be planted and the forbidding of fencing so that each

property is a part of the overall development. The gardens lead straight down on to the golf courses. The resort has 24-hour gated security at the entrance, for those worried about safety.

If you stay at the 149-room Hotel Camiral, you benefit from a recently completed €33 million renovation of the old Melia hotel to fit in with the modernist aesthetic. Every room and public area has been transformed under designer Lazaro Rosa-Violan, who is also responsible for Barcelona projects such as Soho House, the Cotton House hotel and the new Edition. The three-storey lobby atrium of the rejuvenated Camiral has windows overlooking the swimming pools, golf courses, villas and the Pyrenees beyond; light floods into the building. There are huge walls of wooden drawers with the names of local flowers on them, a three-storey mirrorbacked bookcase and lots of comfortable seats where you can flop down to stare at the decoration and the view. It’s a stunning lobby area, and sets the scene for a re-positioning of the hotel, the golf courses and the real-estate. It is five-star luxury, and as far away from the traditional, outdated perception of golf as can be imagined.

Golf resorts face a double challenge today. Many do not project a modern enough image, and they are suffering a drop in playing numbers in many markets. Golf has never been fashionable, but it has long been aspirational, reason enough for all those real estate developments beginning with the golf course. Today’s time-strapped executives find it difficult to justify time on the golf course, while those with the time for a half day to spare prefer Lycra and heading out on expensive bicycles. To appeal to a new generation of golfers while at the same time appealing to their families, more than more than just a golf course is required. At PGA Catalunya a wellness resort is being planned alongside the hotel, along with vineyards (already planted), a man-made recreational lake, an equestrian centre, and football fields to attract footballs teams looking for off-site venues (footballers love playing golf, since it’s one sport they can enjoy without risk of injury).

Hotel Camiral is a relaxing place, with excellent service, and modern rooms refurbished to the highest standards. Rooms on the pool side have balconies, rooms at the back overlook the small car park, practice ground, and then those forests and mountains. The resort is big on sustainability: not only in re-using precious water in the vineyards and garden, but also the one million bees brought to the resort who like it because of the lack of chemicals used across the development.

There’s a choice of restaurants, from the Golf Club House with fabulous views of the courses and the Pyrenees, to 1477 fine dining restaurant. There are even meeting facilities, providing the venue for several highspirited groups while we were there, though the place is so large you hardly notice them.

Finally, there are those wealthy enough to buy one of the properties here – which will be capped at 400 units.